Urban skylines are reaching new heights. From London to Glasgow, tall residential and mixed-use buildings are booming as cities respond to housing demand and urban density. While structural stability and fire safety are often the focus of high-rise design, acoustic performance is equally critical to occupant wellbeing and compliance. Here Glyn Hauser, Technical Director at JELD-WEN UK discusses the importance of correctly specified doors in keeping noise at bay.
Noise in multi-occupancy buildings isn’t just a nuisance. It can affect comfort, privacy and health. Everyday sounds, including footsteps from a neighbour, flushing toilets, or television volumes, can travel easily through poorly insulated structures. Left unresolved, they can disrupt sleep, increase stress and generate complaints, undermining the success of a project. With frameworks such as Building Regulations Approved Document E, BREEAM and the WELL Building Standard all placing greater emphasis on acoustics, it’s clear that noise management must be treated as a fundamental design consideration from the start.
The overlooked role of doors
When it comes to noise control, walls and floors are typically the first considerations. Yet doors play an equally critical role in maintaining acoustic separation between rooms and units. Even minor gaps or poorly fitted seals can undermine the performance of an otherwise well-insulated partition. In high-rise or multi-occupancy buildings, internal and communal doors form part of the acoustic envelope, preventing noise from corridors, stairwells and adjacent units from transferring into private spaces. Their effectiveness depends on several interrelated factors: the door’s construction, the quality of sealing and the accuracy of installation.
Despite their apparent simplicity, doors can make or break an acoustic specification. A solid-core door leaf, made from dense materials such as particleboard or other engineered composites, provides the mass needed to absorb and reflect airborne sound. Around the edges, high-performance perimeter seals and drop-down thresholds eliminate flanking paths where sound can escape. Precision installation is equally important; the frame must be correctly aligned and airtight, as even minor deviations can compromise performance. In short, acoustic integrity depends on detail, with every element of the doorset working together as part of a coherent system.
The value of a system-based approach
When considering the acoustic design of a project, a system-based approach to specification delivers real benefits. Rather than sourcing door leaves, frames and ironmongery separately, complete doorset systems are designed, tested and certified to perform as a unified assembly.
Manufacturers like JELD-WEN have adopted this approach. By designing, testing and certifying complete doorsets, encompassing the door leaf, frame, seals and hardware, it ensures that the performance achieved in laboratory conditions can be reliably replicated on site. This gives specifiers greater confidence in meeting regulatory standards and project-specific acoustic targets, whether for high-rise apartments, hotels or student accommodation.
By treating the doorset as a single, interdependent unit, specifiers can reduce the risk of underperformance and simplify compliance. It also supports consistency between design intent, on-site installation and occupant experience.
City living and the acoustic challenge
Urban environments bring their own acoustic complexities. In tall, mixed-use developments, residents face a constant combination of internal and external sound sources, with traffic, nightlife, public transport and building services all contributing to elevated noise levels. Combined with compact floor plans and shared corridors, this makes acoustic detailing a defining factor in occupant comfort.
High-performance acoustic doorsets help mitigate these challenges by maintaining separation between public and private areas. In residential towers, this could mean limiting sound transmission from communal corridors into bedrooms; in mixed-use buildings, it might involve isolating office or retail spaces from residential units above. Selecting the right acoustic rating for each zone, and ensuring correct installation, are crucial for balancing comfort, performance and cost.
Designing for real-world performance
Effective acoustic design requires a holistic approach from the outset. Adding insulating materials or acoustic panels at the end of construction can help minimise noise transfer, but it is the projects where sound control is integrated into the building’s core design strategy that will see the best results. To do this, architects and specifiers need to consider room layouts, mechanical systems and junction details early on, identifying the high-acoustic areas and implementing noise reduction strategies from the outset. Overlooking these factors can create weak points where sound travels, including service penetrations, partition junctions and even ventilation openings.
While acoustic performance isn’t visible, it’s one of the most noticeable aspects of how a building is experienced by occupants. A quiet, well-insulated apartment fosters comfort, privacy and wellbeing; in co-working spaces, minimal noise disruption supports productivity and focus, all qualities that define a successful multi-occupancy development.
By understanding the role of doorsets in the acoustic envelope and specifying tested, system-based solutions, designers and developers can deliver buildings that meet regulatory expectations and genuinely enhance urban living. As our cities continue to grow taller and denser, the role of acoustic design, and the doorset, will remain one of the most important in making high-rise living both sustainable and comfortable.